Chapter 37

After going over some details, Sandy, Carol and I left for her parent’s house, getting there early enough to catch both of them at home.

Sandy walked in, with us behind her.

“Hello, Kids,” her mother said. “What’s up?”

“Mom, we need to talk to you and Daddy about something?” Sandy said.

“Sure dear, I’ll go get your father, have a seat.”

I saw Sandy breathing hard.

“Calm down, this will work – I know it will.” Sandy and I sat next to each other and cuddled up, holding hands. Carol was smiling; this ‘relationship idea’ was her baby.

Her parents came in, and Sandy and I stood up, me with my arm around her.

Her parents looked at us, wondering what was going on. We all sat back down.

“Mr. and Mrs. Steiner, I’ve fallen in love with your daughter. I certainly didn’t expect to, but as they say, ‘You can’t control who you fall in love with?’”

While her parents looked shocked, I grabbed her hand and kissed it, trying to help sell this idea.

“I know she’s younger than me, but when she told me that she felt this way for me since she and Carol were in grammar school together, I immediately realized I also had feelings for her. Feelings I wanted to pursue, but she told me that you two had to approve or we couldn’t be together.”

Louis, her father, cleared his throat and said, “The age difference isn’t as important as how much you two love each other, and I clearly see that she loves you. How does your sister fit into all of this?”

“Mr. Steiner,” Carol said, “I’m living with my brother because it’s convenient. We’re in shows together, and now Sandy has joined us, both as a marvelously talented triple threat, and a student at SFU as well, but I saw her love for my brother the day she moved in with us. My big lug of a brother here took a little longer. I see how he looks at her sometimes; I’d like a guy to look at me that way too.”

Great ad-lib there, Sis.

Louise, Sandy’s Mom, entered the conversation by asking, “So, why have you come to us now? Is something about to happen that we need to know about?”

I jumped on that saying, “Louise, we’re currently all in SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS, and we’re also immediately following that being in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, but an opportunity has come along for Sandy that I want her to have.”

“Our director of ‘Brides’ is an actor, choreographer, and director from Broadway, who was in the 1982 Broadway production of ‘Brides’ and he’s spear-heading a revival that Carol and I will be starring in the summer of 2017. He’s seen how talented Sandy is, and wants her to be in the show as Carol’s understudy and she’ll be getting her choice of one of the Brides in the show.”

My sister was about to bring this on home.

“So,” she said. “We want to take her with us to Broadway. We’ll find a place to stay with two bedrooms, while we’re in rehearsal for the show. The show will open the first week of July next summer. She’ll be gone the whole time.”

“What exactly are your intentions with my daughter?” Louis came back with, a question we hadn’t anticipated in our details meeting. “Is this going to just be a fling, young man – or have you thought this through at all?”

“Sir, Louis ... Mr. Steiner – I, I don’t know where this is going, but for right now I’m deeply in love with your daughter!” I couldn’t keep from getting emotional.

“She’s all I think of, all day long ... and hearing her say that she loves me. That’s good enough for the moment. What happens after that moment, I don’t know, I can’t tell you, but that moment is what I’m living in, right now with this knockout of a daughter you have—She brightens my day.”

Her parents got up and walked away for a moment, talking to each other. I looked at Carol and then at Sandy. Sandy’s eyes were so full of love and emotion; I couldn’t help myself and gave her a soft kiss, which she returned with love and tenderness.

Her parents came back to us and sat down.

Her father spoke first, “Sandra is 18 and can do what she wants with whomever she wants. That’s why your coming here today tells me that you are indeed in love with our daughter. We give you our blessing to take care of her and watch over her. The fact that her best friend growing up is ‘part of the equation’, makes my wife and me, sure of our decision.”

“And that kiss you just gave her sold me,” said her mother, dabbing at her eyes.

That broke the tension as I gave Sandy a big hug, then I gave her mother one, and shook her father’s hand.

We got some more of Sandy’s things, while we were there, and then left to go back to our house.

“Damn Rann, that ‘deeply in love’ speech was magnificent, you really sold it,” Carol said.

“I just looked in Sandy’s eyes and all of that emotion just came up in me, that was real,” I said. “Once I started crying I knew I’d never stop.”

“You mean you really do love me, Randall?” Sandy said.

“I think I do, Sandy – but I also deeply love Carol ... I don’t know if it’s possible to be in love with two different women without one of them going ballistic on the other one,” I replied.

I looked over at Blue Eyes, and I saw tears in them.

We went by SFU and found a couple of boxes labeled BEAUTY AND THE BEAST; it was all of the hand props and the Beast head pieces, meaning the three pieces that together make up the complete head and face of the beast; the face and neck; the forehead, top and ears; and the back of the head and beast hair. This could work for the commercial, but I’m going to need something easier to deal with or have to take only one of the roles and give away the other.

I had an idea.

I got the girls and we went to Theatre Plus to talk to John. We walked in and he was busy dusting and turned towards us, “Well now if it isn’t me boyos Randall and the beautiful girls. What can I do for ya?”

“John boy, do you know someone who can construct a Beast head from scratch, on the cheap?” I asked.

“Actually, I understand tat Todd Tucker, who assisted Dick Smith on da makeup for the movie FOREVER YOUNG, has moved into the area. He also did work on ‘The Mask’,” John said.